Environment

Silva Timber Products is committed to the pursuit of best practice in the purchase of sustainable timber products. We understand the impact that forestry has on the environment and we ensure that all of our timber is legally sourced from well managed forests, protecting both biodiversity and the indigenous people's rights. We source our Western Red Cedar products from British Columbia (BC) on the West Coast of Canada. BC forests are among the most stringently regulated in the world and are world leaders in preserving sensitive ecosystems.

When sourcing timber products, Silva Timber:-

• Gives preference to products which carry the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) chain of custody certification

• Does not purchase illegally sourced timber or endangered species

Why use wood?

Silva Timber promotes the increased usage of environmentally certified wood in construction. So why is building with wood better for the environment?

• It costs less to build energy-efficient buildings in wood

• Wood from sustainably managed forest has the lowest carbon footprint of any mainstream building material

• The more wood you use, the lower the carbon footprint of your building

• Using more timber saves more CO²

• Wood can make a building carbon neutral - or better

• Wood has the best thermal insulation properties of any mainstream construction material

Sustainability of Building Materials

Source: The Athena Sustainable Materials Incentive

Wood surpasses steel and concrete in energy efficiency through its qualities of:

• Thermal performance.

• Heat conductivity.

• Building codes.

• Insulation.

Reducing our carbon footprint

There are two ways to reduce CO² in the atmosphere:

1. Reducing emissions from energy use.

2. Removing CO² and storing it: reducing 'carbon sources' and increasing 'carbon sinks'.

Wood has the unique ability to do both.

Reducing carbon emissions

Every cubic metre of wood used as a substitute for other building materials reduces CO² emissions to the atmosphere by an average of 1,1 t CO². If this is added to the 0,9 t of CO² stored in wood, each cubic metre of wood saves a total of 2 t CO². Based on these figures, a 10% increase in the percentage of wooden houses in Europe would produce sufficient CO² savings to account for about 25% of the reductions prescribed by the Kyoto Protocol.

As the amount of CO² emitted from combustion is no more than the amount previously stored, burning wood is carbon neutral, a fact well understood by the wood industry which derives up to 75% of the energy it uses to process wood from wood by-products.

Increasing carbon sinks

Each year mankind contributes 7,900 million tonnes of carbon to the atmosphere, of which the carbon sinks absorb 4,600 million tonnes, leading to an annual net increase of 3,300 million tonnes.

This imbalance is so acute that it will not be enough simply to reduce carbon sources, as required by the Kyoto Protocol, carbon sinks will also have to be increased, and one of the simplest ways to increase carbon sinks is to increase the use of wood.

Managed forests are more efficient carbon sinks than forests which are left in a natural state. Younger trees, in vigorous growth, absorb more CO² than mature trees, which will eventually die and rot, returning their store of CO² to the atmosphere, while most of the CO² of the trees harvested from a managed forest continues to be stored throughout the life of the resulting wood product.

Wood products as a carbon store

Wood products, such as Decking, Cladding and Trellis are carbon stores, rather than carbon sinks, as they do not themselves capture CO²  from the atmosphere. But they take an important part in enhancing the effectiveness of the forest sinks, both by extending the period that the CO² captured by the forests is kept out of the atmosphere and by encouraging increased forest growth.

According to recent estimates, the average life of wood products varies between 2 months for newspapers and 75 years for structural wood. The longer, the better for the environment, not least because it makes better use of forest resources, but also because it reduces the energy necessary for replacing the products concerned.

Transportation of wood - 'wood miles'

Initially it may seem that such shipping timber long distances must be a significant negative factor in the overall carbon footprint of wood products from North America to the UK. Research studies have however determined wood from anywhere in Canada, east or west coast, still has much more carbon stored in it than was emitted in its transportation to the UK, creating a better than carbon neutral building material.

Western Red Cedar

Silva Timber's Western Red Cedar is responsibly and sustainably harvested in publicly managed forests of British Columbia, Canada.

The province has exceeded United Nations guidelines by setting aside 12% of its land base as parkland.

Less than 1/3 of 1% of British Columbia's Cedar growing stock volume is harvested each year.

For each tree harvested, three are replanted, resulting in more forests in North America than 100 years ago.

Timber, and Western Red Cedar specifically, has the least impact on the environment throughout its life cycle.

Canada has maintained 91% of its original forest cover, more than any other country in the world, whilst also being a world leader in the production of forest products for over a century.

Canada's forest cover relates to:

• 310 million hectares of forest land.

• Of this, 144 million hectares are considered accessible and most likely to be subject to forest management activities

• Less than 1 million hectares are harvested annually, compared to 2 million hectares of forested land burned by forest fires in Canada in 2006.

Click here to view information regarding the practices and standards of our supplier in British Columbia

Click here to view a recent letter from the British Columbia Minister of Forests, Lands & Mines regarding their forest policy

Siberian Larch

The environmental implications in using Siberian Larch are positive. The annual growth of Siberian Larch is greater than the annual felling rate. Annual growth is estimated to be 800 million cubic meters per year, while the allowable logging threshold to maintain sustainability is projected to be 500 million cubic meters. Presently, only 100 million cubic meters are being cut annually!